The hippocampus: hub of brain network communication for memory

A complex brain network, centered on the hippocampus, supports episodic memories throughout their lifetimes. Classically, upon memory encoding during active behavior, hippocampal activity is dominated by theta oscillations (6-10Hz). During inactivity, hippocampal neurons burst synchronously, constituting sharp waves, which can propagate to other structures, theoretically supporting memory consolidation. This 'two-stage' model has been updated by new data from high-density electrophysiological recordings in animals that shed light on how information is encoded and exchanged between hippocampus, neocortex and subcortical structures such as the striatum. Cell assemblies (tightly related groups of cells) discharge together and synchronize across brain structures orchestrated by theta, sharp waves and slow oscillations, to encode information. This evolving dynamical schema is key to extending our understanding of memory processes.     

The integration of spatial information across different viewpoints

The integration of spatial information perceived from different viewpoints is a frequent, yet largely unexplored, cognitive ability. In two experiments, participants saw two presentations, each consisting of three targets—that is, illuminated tiles on the floor—before walking the shortest possible path across all targets. In Experiment 1, participants viewed the targets either from the same viewpoint or from different viewpoints. Errors in recalling targets increased if participants changed their viewpoints between presentations, suggesting that memory acquired from different viewpoints had to be aligned for integration. Furthermore, the error pattern indicates that memory for the first presentation was transformed into the reference frame of the second presentation. In Experiment 2, we examined whether this transformation occurred because new information was integrated already during encoding or because memorized information was integrated when required. Results suggest that the latter is the case. This might serve as a strategy for avoiding additional alignments.     

The verbalization of multiple strategies in a variant of the traveling salesperson problem

What kinds of strategies do humans employ when confronted with a complex spatial task, and how do they verbalize these strategies? Previous research concerned with the well-known traveling salesperson problem (TSP) typically aimed at the identification of a generally applicable heuristics that adequately represents human behavior in relation to the abstract task of combining points. This paper adopts a novel perspective in two respects. On the one hand, it addresses the strategies people employ when confronted with a more complex task, involving distractors and feature information rather than identical points. On the other hand, retrospective linguistic representations of the strategies used are analyzed in relation to the behavioral data, using discourse analytic methods. Results show that both the behavioral results and the verbalizations point to a range of strategies related to those proposed for solving abstract TSPs. However, in contrast to earlier accounts in the literature, the participants employ a repertory of multi-faceted strategies and planning processes, simplifying and structuring the problem space across subtasks and processes in flexible ways. These findings provide further insight into the nature of human strategies in spatial problem solving tasks and their retrospective verbalization, highlighting how procedures generally known in the literature may be adapted to more complex tasks, and how they may be verbalized spontaneously.     

Paradoxical affinities: otherness and ambivalence as creative pathways

Referring to her own background as the child of Jewish refugees forced to leave their countries of origin before the second World War, the author describes how her attitude towards Jung and his ideas has evolved. The role of paradoxical affinities that have affected the author's life and identity as a Jungian analyst are considered, alongside the impact of experiences of otherness whilst supervising and teaching abroad, particularly in Eastern Europe.     

The Angry Juror: Sentencing Decisions in First‐Degree Murder

A great deal of research in legal decision making has overlooked the influence of affect on the decision‐making process. The present study measured the fluctuation of emotions across five time points of a capital trial and tested the overall relationship between changes in emotion and sentencing decisions. The results showed that across all participants, anger initially increased and then decreased during the course of a capital punishment trial. Most importantly, the more individual mock jurors' anger increased during any stage of the trial, the more likely they were to assign a death sentence. Furthermore, when jurors' anger increased, they rated mitigating factors presented by the defense as weaker and the weaker mitigation mediated the relationship between change in anger and sentencing. The paper ends with a discussion of theoretical explanations and policy implications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neurotherapy in Adult Management of Stress: Developmental Aspects of the Adult Immune System

Stress, defined as a stimulus, a response, and an interaction between the person and the environment is eventually present in everyday life. Nevertheless, stress can be both dangerous and uncomfortable. Stress influences the corticotropin??releasing factor and the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine systems, which in turn impact the hypothalamic?Cpituitary?Cadrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system. At the same time, stress directly affects the immune system. Treatment by means of an alternative approach such as neurotherapy can enhance the immune system and thereby improve the patient??s overall wellbeing.